Civics Classes for the Masses

Today’s late night comedians may be the last bastion – or even the first given the disappearance of civics in current curriculum across the nation – teaching about the Congress, the President, the Judiciary, the Press and how our government works, is working or non-working in some cases .

For the past 21 years, I have had the high privilege of holding a White House press pass, a magical ticket that gives the bearer a front-row seat to history.

I was in the White House the night Bill Clinton admitted his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and the day he was impeached. I was there on Sept. 11, 2001, and the fearful days thereafter, when we were trained to use escape hoods. I watched George W. Bush make the case for the Iraq War and Barack Obama pitch his remedies for the market crash. There, too, I have witnessed the carnival-like briefings and high histrionics of Donald Trump’s presidency.

But no more. The White House eliminated most briefings and severely restricted access to official events. And this week came the coup de grace: After covering four presidents, I received an email informing me that Trump’s press office had revoked my White House credential.

Lessee, refuses to comply with congressional subpoenas, directs all employees to refuse to comply with appearance or document requests or subpoenas, shuts down press access to the WH liar corps in violation of the 2 nd Amendment, makes bogus assertion of executive privilege to block release of investigation of his activities that may be criminal. Hmmmm, sounds like the HOUSE SHOULD START IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATIONS. PLEASE. Thank you.

I spent most of yesterday watching Jerry Nadler shepherd his committee to its inevitable conclusion. Civics in action. Then at 2100 EST there was a visibly exhausted Nadler on Rachel’s show working to further the cause. And, where was SFB?? Checking the spy-camera in the Press room?

The committee, which is led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) wants Don Jr. to answer questions behind closed doors as a follow-up on his dubious testimony last year in which he minimized his role in the notorious Trump Tower Moscow project.

Trump Jr. apparently rejected invitations to testify voluntarily to clarify his sworn statements. His claims were contradicted by others who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, particularly ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen.

Trump Jr. could invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying. Or he could simply ignore the subpoena, a gambit that would force Burr to decide if he wants to pursue the politically explosive matter.

[…]

Fired White House adviser Sebastian Gorka branded Burr a Republican In Name Only for not toeing the party line on Don Jr.

When asked if his son would fight the subpoena, the president said: “We’ll see what happens.”

“My son is a good person. My son testified for hours and hours,” the president said. “My son was totally exonerated by Mueller, who, frankly, does not like Donald Trump — me.”

The White House has rejected multiple congressional subpoenas in the past month, sparking fights between the two branches of government and paving the way for future legal battles and potential impeachment.

Trump has trumpeted the results of Mueller’s 22-month probe as evidence of “total exoneration” of him, even though the special counsel did not say that. Mueller’s 448-page report — which the president on Thursday described as “the Bible” — said there was insufficient evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin to meddle with the 2016 election

There’s not enough vile cursage to apply to that prime and pristine example of a South Carolina pipsqueak turd. He has soared far beyond range. One day in the future he will die peacefully in his bed whispering to himself, “What a good boy am I”.

The founders tried ever so delicately to put a squash on the lunatic fringe religious-fervery zealots. But they always, eternally, come bouncy-praying back, loading up everyone’s plates with heaping helpings of fear and loathing, hellfire and damnation. A pox upon them.

I read a book I found in a kind of trash bin. First in a long time. THEOPHILUS NORTH, by one Thornton Wilder, published 1973, a First Edition, as it happens, one of his last.

He, what is likely autobiograpically, writes of a well educated young man of 30, a Yale man from Madison WI, who finds himself free of all entanglements after teaching awhile at a New Jersey prep school. It’s after WWI. He decides to spend the summer in Newport RI, and to support himself by coaching young lads in tennis at what they call the casino, and by running an ad in the paper offering himself as tutor, reader, and whatnot. The book tells of his interactions with the people of and in what he called “The nine cities of Newport” likening it to Schlieman’s then recent discovery of the nine cities of Troy, and lastly tips his hand to how he became a writer.

Too bad. However#1, I think it is the jury’s job to determine the perpetrator’s state of mind, with expert outside advice. However#2 trump’s state of mind seems to change more swiftly than fireworks on the 4th of July.

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